A year ago, Marvel revived the original 31st Century Guardians of the Galaxy. They resurfaced in a back-up story to Guardians #14, an oversized anniversary issue celebrating 100 issues of the franchise. Written by Dan Abnett it was a fun, intriguing tale of the Guardians fighting the Badoon, while trying to determine the cause of temporal anomalies. At the time, I suspected that Marvel was laying the groundwork for a longer story, perhaps one that would bring the Guardians to the present day? Why not? It had happened often enough in the past. And a couple months ago that is exactly what happened. Last month, the Guardians, now teamed-up with the Avengers, finally pieced together the puzzle. The solution: Michael Korvac. The mention of his name is far from reassuring to those who faced him in the past.

And why would that be? The name Michael Korvac does not exactly sends chills down the spine a la Victor Von Doom. In fact, his co-creator Steve Gerber once likened the character’s name to a vacuum cleaner. Nor does he have a particularly large body of appearances. Yet, he is considered one of the greatest foes the Avengers have ever faced.

Warren Ellis of Trees, Project Super Powers: Black Cross, Moon Knight, The Authority, Planetary, Transmetropolitan & Iron Man: Extremis will be writing a series of graphic novels based on the upcoming role playing game Degenisis with illustrations from the games creator Marko Djurdjevic. More details via Facebook